An overview for teachers and group members, of Lifeway’s Explore the Bible lesson of Romans 7, for October 11, 2026. Includes a suggested introduction to the lesson, text outline and highlights, illustrations to share, group discussion questions, and spiritual life applications. There is a print button at the end of this article so that you can print it out to read/study/teach from. A video version of this overview is available on YouTube at:

INTRODUCTION:

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION???

“What is a recurring problem in your home/yard that you have to keep fighting to stay on top of?”

(There’s a lot of things, right?

— If you’re a gardener, you’re always fighting weeds. You can clear them out, but they’ll be back! You have to keep at it.

— We had an ant problem a couple of years ago, so now I keep three different kinds of pellets and traps and treatments out for them.

— Right now in our house it’s gnats: I think they got in some of our plants, so again we’ve got a multi-faceted approach, with soapy water, and stuff in our drains, and then we got some of those lights with sticky traps. I think we’ve turned the corner on them, but we can’t let up!

We all have things like this, that have to keep fighting in our homes and gardens. There’s always something to address, take care of.

In our spiritual lives, it’s that way with sin, too, isn’t it? Has anyone here so completely conquered sin in your life, that you don’t have to worry about it anymore? None of us are there, are we? 

And scripture tells us that’s common: I John 1:8 says “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” If we’re honest, we ALL struggle with sin, no matter how long we’ve been a Christian. And sadly we will continue to struggle against sin as long as we live. But as we shall see in our lesson today, the fact that we are struggling is good — and one day we will be totally free from any taint of sin, because of what Christ did for us.

CONTEXT:

We’re continuing our study of the great book of Romans. Paul wrote the church in Chapter 1 expressing his hope to come and share the gospel, which he says is God’s power to save. In the following chapters he gives the most in-depth explanation of the gospel anywhere in scripture: what it means, and why we need it. He showed how every person, Jew and Greek, is accountable to God, either through the Law or through what they can see of God in creation, and that all have sinned. But as Romans 5 tells us, while we were all sinners and enemies and God, Christ came to die on the cross for us. We must accept that gift by faith, which is not a work, Chapter 4 makes clear, but which saves us and makes us right with God. Now, he says in Romans 6, we can begin to have power over sin, because of Christ’s resurrection power and His Holy Spirit in us. 

Romans 7:1-3 opens with an illustration, of how if a woman is married to a husband, she is bound to him — but if he dies, she is released from him. This brings us to our passage for today, which re-emphasizes how we’ve died with Christ — though as we shall see, this does NOT mean that our struggles with sin in this life are automatically over — as we all know very well by experience!

OUTLINE:

I.   Free From the Law (:4-6)

II.  Conflicted with Sin (:14-23)

III. Hope in Christ (:24-25)

TEXT:  Romans 7: 4-6, 14-25

I. Free From The Law (:4-6)

:4 “Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. 5 For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. 6 But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.”

AGAIN this week, our passage starts with a “Therefore,” which points back to something. In this case it’s pointing back immediately to :1-3 of Romans 7, which uses the illustration of how if a woman’s husband dies, the woman is freed from that married relationship. So Paul says “Therefore” — because we recognize and understand that truth — “YOU were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ.” In other words, just a woman is free from her husband if he dies, so YOU are free from the Law through Christ’s death on the cross. 

He says in :5 that “while we were in the flesh (while we were still lost) the sinful passions which were aroused by the Law, were at wrk in the members of our body to bear fruit for death.”

Here he talks about the nature of the Law

— The Law is not “bad,” or “sin” as 7:7 says in between our focus passages: “Is the Law sin? May it never be?”

— but God did USE it to reveal our sin as :7 goes on to say: “On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “YOU SHALL NOT COVET.” 

Romans 3:20 says “through the Law comes the knowledge of sin.” 

Galatians 3:24 says “Therefore the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith.”

So to be clear: God’s Law is not “sin;” it’s not “bad.” In fact it’s good, because it sets a moral standard for us, which reveals our sin, and convicts us, and ultimately shows us how much we need Christ. 

ILLUSTRATION 

Years ago I heard a story that is hilarious, and so revealing of human nature. A little boy came over to his grandpa’s house, and just to be ornery, the grandpa told the boy, you can have fun and play outside, but whatever you do, just don’t spit in the garden. The boy said ok, and the grandpa went inside and ran upstairs to his office. He watched out the window as the boy played, and he watched him make his way to the garden. He said the boy stopped, looked around left and right to make sure no one was watching, and suddenly he spit in the garden!  The man said, that boy would NEVER have done that, had I not told him NOT to do it! 

And that’s not just kids, right? How many of us do the same things with speed limit signs: why do we always go just a little over?! It just shows our nature, doesn’t it? We’re always pushing it; we’re always rebelling against what we feel are restrictions.

This is what the Bible says the Law does for us. The Law is NOT sin, but it reveals our sin, and it shows us how much we need Christ to save us. 

BUT NOW Paul says in :6, “we have been released from the Law” — make it clear: we are not released from the moral obligations of the Law; not to murder, commit immorality, and so on; those are unchanging standards. Some do take that too far and say “We don’t have to keep the Law at all; we can do whatever we want”  — we talked about that in Romans 6. That’s libertinism, or antinomianism, and it has no place in a genuine Christian life. 

The difference, Paul says, is that now we serve God “in the newness of the Spirit.” We don’t serve under a “law” which is drudgery; no one likes that — but now through faith in Christ, God’s Holy Spirit is inside us, and full of the Spirit of God, we rejoice to love God and love others. And as Paul says later in Romans 13:8 “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law.” In other words, if you just love people, because you’re full of the Spirit (and the first fruit of the Spirit is “love,” Galatians 5:22 says) then you aren’t going to murder them, or steal from them, or lie to them, and so on. If you love them, in the Spirit, you will fulfill the Law. 

So in Christ, we’ve been set free from the drudgery of the Law, but we’re fulfilling its moral commands now through His Spirit who is inside us. 

II. Conflicted With Sin (:14-21)

:14 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. 15 For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate. 16 But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19 For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want. 20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.

21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good. 22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.”

Verses :7-13 fall in between our Lifeway “focus passages,” and they talk about how the Law is not “bad,” but how it leads us to Christ, as we saw in the last point. Paul says in :14, “the Law is spiritual” (God gave it!) “but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.”

Now starting with :15, Paul begins a “lament” of sorts, about his spiritual condition: “What I am doing, I do not understand … I am not practicing what I would like to do,” and so on through this passage. We’ll address this in more detail in a minute.

But should know that there are at least 3 interpretations of what Paul says here in Romans 7:

1) Paul is writing about his “pre-Christian experience.” He used to have all these struggles with sin when he was lost, but he does not have them any longer now that he is in Christ.

2) Paul is writing about his very real, personal, present struggle against sin as a believer. 

3) Others believes he’s writing “hypothetically” about a Christian (not himself) who either doesn’t have the Holy Spirit or is not walking in the Spirit. 

There are some points to be made for each of these views, but I believe Paul is sharing his real-life experience, for several reasons:

— For one, he expresses this in such personal terms: “Wretched man that I am,” he says in :24. 

— Then look at :15, “I am not practicing what I would like to do.” Well, a lost person wouldn’t “like to do” the right things. They like to sin! It’s only the Christian person who would “like to do” right. This seems to indicate that this is about a saved person.

— Again, at the end of :15 he adds: “I am doing the very thing that I hate.” Again, lost people don’t “hate” sin; they enjoy it! Only a believer would hate sin.

— in :16, “I do the very thing I do not want to do.” If you’re lost, you DO want to do those things! 

— In :18 he says “the willing is present in me.” Not if you’re lost it isn’t! The willing is only present in a Christian. 

— :22 who “joyfully concurs with the Law of God” in their inner man? Not a lost person, but a Christian.

You see this over and over in this passage; I won’t list all of them but you can find them here repeatedly. He wants to do good, but he finds himself doing things he knows is wrong, and so he has this ongoing inner struggle. 

I do not believe this is “pre-Christian” or “hypothetical.” Paul is writing about the struggle that real Christians still experience with sin. (John MacArthur wrote: “It is correct to understand Paul here to be speaking about a believer,” p. 1527) I think most of us have personally felt the kind of struggle that Pauls describes here, about our continual battles with sin.

EXERCISE: read (or have a good reader in your group read) verses :15-23 aloud. When the reading is finished ask your group:

??? “What’s your response to this passage? Has anyone ever felt like this before?”

(I think most of us who are honest would say, Yes, I have! We all feel that struggle with sin. YES we have the Holy Spirit in us. And YES He gives us power over sin. And with God’s help we can and should be gaining ground in our battle against various sins in our lives. 

But the truth is, as long as we live, we will never completely overcome all sin in our life, for the reason Paul specifies here:

— our “flesh,” (:18)

— “the law of sin” which is in “the members of our body” (:23)

Because we still live in “this body of death” as Paul calls it in :24, we’re going to feel just like he describes in this passage, and we will continue to experience that battle with sin, as long as we live here on earth.

That may sound discouraging, but here’s a truth that might help:

Post/display/pass out this quote, and ask your members what they think of this:

??? DISCUSSION QUESTION??

“The conflict between the flesh and the spirit is a clear evidence of grace. Where there is no resistance, there is no life.”

— Thomas Watson (Puritan 1620-1686)

Doesn’t that make sense? Sometimes we feel bad because, like Paul laments here, we are struggling against sin. Maybe we even think “I must not even be a Christian because I struggle with this.” But the truth is, the fact that you are battling sin may be one of the best evidences that you’re really saved! Lost men don’t “struggle” with sin; they just give in to it! Lost men don’t struggle with pornography; they just give in to it and consider it “normal.” Lost women don’t try to break off an ungodly relationship; they just continue thoughtlessly in it. If you or someone you know is struggling against sin, that’s not necessarily a sign that they’re lost; it could be one of the best signs that they are actually ALIVE spiritually! They’re fighting against sin! 

Are you struggling with a sin? Thomas Watson would say to you: Be encouraged! The fact that you aren’t “content” with your sin, but that you’re struggling against it like Paul does in this passage, is one of the clearest evidences that God’s grace is active in your life! So rejoice: your struggle is actually a sign that you’re alive!

And the good news, as we shall see, is that our struggle against sin will not continue forever; there is great hope for the future! 

III. Hope in Christ (:24-25)

:24 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

After this whole litany of woes, of the ongoing, life-long struggle that the Christian has with sin, Paul concludes it here. He says, “Wretched man that I am! “Who will set me free from the body of this death?” (See again, it’s the BODY he wants to be free from. He’s got the Holy Spirit inside leading him to want to do the right things.)

“Wretched” is the Greek “talaiporos,” Thayer says it literally means “to bear callouses” — in other words, so continually beaten down that you are covered with callouses! It’s translated “wretched,” or “miserable.”

And he talks about how he will be set free from “this body of death.” It’s like we’re “chained” to this body of sin.

ILLUSTRATION:

F.F. Bruce mentions in his commentary on Romans a very vivid picture: the Etruscan King Mezentius was said to torment his prisoners by literally chaining them to a dead body, that they had to live with and carry around! 

That really fits what Paul is describing here in Romans 7: “I’m chained to ‘this body of death’”! As Christians we might identify with that; sometimes feel like we’re chained to this sinful body that drags us down when are trying to serve God. 

So Paul asks: Who WILL set him free from this? It’s not a rhetorical question: there IS Someone Who will set him free from the body of this death!  He says in :25, “Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus our Lord.” JESUS will set him free from this body of death.

As long as we live, we will wrestle with this body of sin. But one day, this body will pass away, and with it our old “man of flesh.” This body has to die, for us to be rid of it.  In that sense we as Christians should look forward to death. “The body of this death” MUST DIE in order for us to be perfect. We will never be free from it, until that happens. So in that sense we should look forward to that. 

Paul expands on this in I Corinthians 15:50-57:

:50 “Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, 52 in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “Death is swallowed up in victory. 55 O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law; 57 but thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

There Paul says, these present bodies cannot inherit the Kingdom of God. These bodies have been tainted with sin, and we must be rid of them to live forever in God’s Kingdom. When we’ve died, these old bodies will be done away with, and we’ll be raised with new “imperishable” bodies that will be immortal! 

And notice how he exults at the end in :57, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!”

That sounds just like what Paul says here in Romans 7:25, doesn’t it? “Thanks be to God, through Christ Jesus our Lord!” Jesus is going to deliver us from “the body of this death.” Jesus is going to give us new, eternal, immortal bodies, to live with Him in the New Jerusalem forever. And we will be free from sin, forever! What a day that will be! We should all look forward to it!

AND: as we will see in the next chapter, Romans 8, there IS help, even now, as we already saw earlier in Chapter 6, from the power of Christ’s Holy Spirit in us. We are not helpless against sin. It is a battle, but with His Spirit in us, we can have victories. But one day, Paul says, all those battles against sin will be over. We should look forward to that day! 

ILLUSTRATION:

Many of you know the story of Joni Earickson Tada, who was paralyzed and made a quadraplegic in a diving accident when she was a young woman. She became a Christian, and has had a marvelous testimony for years now. Some time ago, she said:

“People say, ‘You must be looking forward to Heaven’, thinking I am looking forward to getting my new body. And after more than 25 years in a wheelchair, it’s true that I am. But more than I am looking forward to my new body [she said with her voice choking with emotion] I am looking forward to a heart without sin.” (Joni Eareckson Tada, quoted in Whitney, p. 126)

We should all look forward to that day when we have not only a new body, but also a heart that is totally free from sin. I think that most of us should probably anticipate that more than we do. It’s so easy to be distracted by both the pleasures and the cares of this present world, that we don’t really look forward to what the Lord has in store for us, the way we should. 

I pray that our study of Romans 7 this week will help us with that. We all know, by vivid personal experience, what Paul expresses here about the continuous struggle with sin that we have here on earth. But thank God Jesus gave us His Spirit when He saved us, and the fact that we’re fighting against sin is one of the best indicators that He’s really in us. And one day — perhaps soon — Jesus will set us from not only from the penalty of sin, not only from the power of sin, but also from the very presence of sin, once for all and forever!  “Maranatha” — “Come, O Lord!” 

For all of us sin-sick folks, it can’t be too soon! 

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